Writing of the gods: the race to decode the Rosetta Stone

The stakes

The find

The challenge

Voices from the dust

So near yet so far

The conquering hero

The burning deck

Monsieur Smith makes his exit

A celebrity in stone

First guesses

The rivals

Thomas Young is almost surprised

Archimedes in his bathtub, Thomas Young in his country house

Ahead of the field

Lost in the labyrinth

Ancient wisdom

"A cipher and a secret writing"

The exile

Here comes Champollion

"A veritable chaos"

The birth of writing

The Paduan giant

Abu Simbel

Eureka!

The unveiling

A duck may be somebody's mother

Straining to hear

Strength in numbers

A pair of walking legs

Clean robes and soft hands

Out of a job

The lost pharaoh.